346 Volcanoes in the Bay of Bengal. 



mountains, entirely disappeared, and another sunk so low- 

 that its summit only remained visible.* Four hills are de- 

 scribed as having been violently rent asunder, leaving open 

 chasms, varying from 30 to 60 feet in width. Other moun- 

 tains and hills were variously disturbed, — some were par- 

 tially thrown down, so as partly to disturb the courses of 

 rivers. One eminence became degraded by little and little, 

 till it returned to the level of the plain. In the plain the 

 earth opened in several places, throwing up mud and water 

 of a sulphureous smell. At Barcharra 200 lives were lost 

 on a track of ground that sunk suddenly. It is said that at 

 Arracan the effects of the earthquake of 1762 were not less 

 fatal to human life and property than those of the Lisbon 

 one in 1755 ; while at Dacca the waters rose so suddenly as 

 to throw all the boats on shore on its retirement, sweeping 

 multitudes of human beings away. From the notices of 

 islands on the western shore of the Bay of Bengal, now no 

 longer to be found, in the accounts of Arab navigators, there 

 can be no doubt whatever that numbers of these have been 

 from time to time submerged. < ' 



On 2d January 1845, between the hours of six and seven 

 P.M., about an hour after sunset, the people of Kyouk Phyoo, 

 on the coast of Arracan, were astonished to see the eastern 

 horizon to seaward become brightly illuminated ; it con- 

 tinued flickering like the reflection of distant flame from a 

 ship on fire for about half an hour, when suddenly immense 

 volumes of flame were seen to burst, as if from the depths 

 of the ocean, presenting the most sublime and awful spec- 

 tacle to beholders. It was accompanied by a low continuous 

 rumbling sound, which seemed to ascend from the bowels of 

 the earth, and was re-echoed from the hills around. The 

 duration of the exhibition is not mentioned, though it was 

 seen by many witnesses ; it seems to have been very tran- 

 sient. A vessel was sent out to sea immediately, under the 



* Phil. Transactions, Lond. 1763, given entire in Captain Smith's paper on 

 earthquakes. Bl. Asiatic Transactions, vol. xii., p. 1047 ; quoted in Report of 

 Coal Committee. To be seen in the India Review, 1839, p. 71. I have intro- 

 duced the passage into the text nearly unaltered. 



